Upstream Color: Plasma Head Fusion

The new teaser for Shane Carruth’s follow up to Primer has finally hit. The film is called Upstream Color and the synopsis isn’t particularly illuminating:

A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives.

The trailer makes me think of a lot of things. It explains almost nothing. And yet: intrigued.

I like the disorienting motion of the editing; swirl, spin, zoom in, and pull-back; pulse out, blink, and pull-back; sink right, emerge out, blink, reveal, and gasp. And the creepy music—I’ve watched this thrice and I’m still not sure what I’m seeing.Is that some sort of oozing egg? A spore sac? A smoking dingleberry? And how can flowers be scary?

I just hope that pig is okay. Or tasty.

I suppose there’s only one way to find out. Gimme the knife. No wait. I’ll take the axe. Yeah. Gimme the axe. Take that you stupid tree. Ice water isn’t going to help if your head is made of fusion-fired plasma.

What else can I say? I liked Primer well enough. This seems to be similarly weirdo—potentially extremely more so—and looks to be all Shane Carruth with no Hollywood filler fluff. That’s him as the lead and he wrote and directed, too. I bet the ending isn’t happy. Hooray!